Top 5 Underrated Phones of 2017

Top 5 Underrated Phones of 2017

This has been a great year for the smartphone industry. We saw new innovations like the bezel less phones instead of old boring technology. Apple wowed us with launching three new devices but won our hearts with the iPhone X. Android fans weren't left behind we saw some great phone this year like the Galaxy S8, Note 8, Oneplus 5T and Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. In this article we are going to cover the top 5 underrated phones of 2017. It’s not that these phones were bad instead they were quite the opposite, high end features, top quality design and so on, but didn't receive much media and consumer attention like the devices mentioned before.

Nokia 6

We heard of a new company called HMD Global would be designing and launching Android phones under the Nokia branding and at start we looked at it with a suspicious eye. No one believed that this startup company would be able to produce phone would live up to the Nokia name. After they launched their first Nokia branded Android phones all doubts were cleared. The top quality of their flagship Nokia 8 impressed all. HMD also launched another phone, Nokia 6 which was quite great because of tits low price point but went under the radar. Nokia 6 is currently available in US on Amazon with a price tag of $150. For $150 you get all-aluminum build, a 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display, and comes with a stock version of Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Its powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, 16 MP rear camera, 8 MP front-facing camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery. The only issue we had with it was it uses old microUSB port for charging.

Essential Phone

Andy Rubin the creator of Android founded a company called Essential Products Inc. and launched theEssential Phone. Before the release of the phone it got a lot of press coverage and all were excited to see what Rubin would contribute to the smartphone industry. However, after the phone got released it had a huge price tag of $699 but couldn’t keep up with the competition in that price point because of the subpar camera and the missing headphone jack.As time passed the price of came down to $499 which is reasonable. Essential phone has a great near-bezel-free 5.7-inch 2,560 x 1,312 display, with 8 MP front-facing camera located at a small notch on top the screen. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a roomy 128 GB of storage all lead up to an amazing under $500 smartphone.

LG G6

LG released the LG G6 a few weeks before the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, in early April but the phone just couldn’t compete with S8 and S8 Plus. LG G6 is a great device, it was the first phone to bring 18:9 display ratio to the USA. Rocking dual-camera setup and IP68 dust and water resistance, it had a lot going for it.Where G6 lost was being powered by an older Snapdragon 821 processor, Whereas, Galaxy S8 and other phones had Snapdragon 835 processor. The price didn’t help the device either. G6 was priced at the High End $700 range. Now you can easily snag this phone for as low as $399 on Amazon as an Amazon Prime device (with lock screen ads).

Sony Xperia XZ1

Even though Sony phones are as popular as their competitors they still make some outstanding devices. Xperia XZ1 comes with some high-end specs and amazing features which makes it shine and deserve to be on the Top 5 Underrated phones of 2017.Xperia XZ1 has a 19 MP rear camera including Exmor RS sensor with 5-axis image stabilization, 4K video recording, and slow-motion video at 960 fps. It also has an amazing feature called “Motion Eye” which lets you take a selfie by just looking into the camera. Also, a 3D Creator app which scans and generates 3D mobels of food, shapes and other objects.Xperia XZ1 fall short at just having a small 5.2- inch display and the US version lacking a fingerprint sensor. Another place where Sony could have done better was refreshing the design of their Xperia phones.By the way, Xperia XZ1 one of the few handful devices which come with Android 8.0 Oreo.

Moto Z2 Play

Motorola have made good innovation with the modular phone idea with their Moto Mods. Moto Z2 Force was their flagship device released this year but we will be looking at Z2 Play, its smaller brother. Moto Z2 play is powered by a Snapdragon 626 processor, 5.5-inch display, up to 4 GB of RAM and up to 64 GB of storage. Having a 3000 mAh battery, 510 mAh less than the older Moto Z Play, It still last a whole day and a half which is quite a lot compared to other smartphone these days. If you are not satisfied with that you can put a battery pack moto mod on it and increase it significantly. Moto Z2 Play supports all the Moto Mods supported by its bigger brother. You can get this gem for as low at $340.